Yousef Kekhia
Videos
About
Two years after “Monologue”, Berlin-based musician Yousef Kekhia is releasing his sophomore record “Polylog”, a fitting successor to his moving debut. While “Monologue” appeared as a hypnotic soliloquy, impressing listeners particularly because of its focus inwards, “Polylog” opens up to the world, inviting it in and making a diversity of perspectives, experiences and concepts of life visible through its polyphonic nature. “‘Monologue’ was a dark album”, Syrian-born Kekhia says. It dealt with his fight against cancer, depression, losing love and long years of fleeing from Syria’s war. It was about always leaving and never arriving. “Music was the only refuge” he remembers while reflecting on his experiences of the past few years, “it was a place of healing for me, a space that allowed me to get over some things and express them.”
In his native Syria, Kekhia already played in bands, mostly covering songs in English. “But while I had cancer, it didn’t feel right anymore to write songs in English” – which led him to starting to write in his mother tongue Arabic and to combine the lyrics with his very own and unique electronic sound. On “Polylog”, Kekhia is developing this approach further: by now, Kekhia has not only arrived in Berlin, but also built his artistic and personal home in the city. Where “Monologue” stared into the abyss, “Polylog” turns towards the sun, yet never without that certain pinch of melancholy characterizing both Yousef Kekhia’s songwriting and the lyrical traditions of the Arabic language.
“Polylog” is also a sonic manifesto of personal development: “I felt free to find myself as a feminist and break barriers in my head”, Kekhia says, describing the past months but also his work for “Polylog”. The album is something akin to the manifestation of a new expression of masculinity, a gender identity striving for a more equal, better world and future. “‘Polylog’ is about how feminism affected my life as a man in this man dominated world, coming from a male dominant culture as well. It taught me a lot and made me much more feminist than I thought I could ever be”, Kekhia adds.
Kekhia transports this message lyrically as well as sonically: the songs on “Polylog” are simultaneously vulnerable, confident and powerful. And they radiate this very specific warmth that can only come from acoustic elements which Kekhia combines with his emotional and truly borderless sound involving elements of electronic music and folk. Listen to the hopeful “Al Rabta” for example, a song that captures a feeling of freedom, surrounded by lights, creativity and music, open for new experiences and for any direction this great trip we’re all taking together on this planet will lead us to. Or take the shimmering and beautiful “A’l Amar”, an ode to the moon and to the desire to escape memories towards a planet where only magic and pure instincts exist instead of our grown up attitudes and the materialistic capitalist world. And of course there is also the melancholic “Lan Ansa” where the serene sonic landscape leaves space for Yousef Kekhia’s stunning voice to shine.
“Polylog” is not yet another album with songs about love, Kekhia’s lyrics deal with the consequences and effects various relationships have had on him: “‘Polylog’ is the effect and the burst of a true honest exchange between different people from different cultural backgrounds. It is about the magic stories which are written into relationships, every encounter and exchange is like a little fairytale in my mind. Polylog is about these encounters with different women and the emotions they sparked in me and reminded me of: they made me feel home sometimes or made me feel accepted and colorful.”With “Polylog”, Yousef Kekhia releases a record that gives so much more than it promises: it is the mature work of a young artist, it fuses the poetic traditions of the Arabic language with contemporary electronic music. It brings the discussion about new forms of masculinity to the dancefloor, shares thoughts for the morning after, and creates a future we could all be grateful to experience.
Press
“With “Polylog” he delivers a playful and at the same time melancholic album, which underlines Kekhia’s personal meaning of mutual exchange.” – WDR
“Quite a new and late addition to this year’s extraordinary music outcome but since it came out it’s playing in loops in our house and in my heart. So gentle, so emotional and so beautifully made.” – MIXMAG
“The quieter his music gets, the clearer his message becomes. “I will never forget.” His first album was called Monologue. Soliloquy. His new, second one now, “Polylog.” He opens up to the world. More and more.” – BR